If an attack starts from a distance, gun excluded, your defense should be to get away from the situation, as in run. So most attacks are going to be close, if not touching when they begin. Maybe your caught by surprise, or off gaurd. Every combative and technique in krav deals with in close attacks. So with any situation it's just a matter of applying what you've learned. If your in close use knees and elbows, eye gauges, scratch and bite, etc. If none of you are training up close, you should.

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If your in a "Fair Fight", your tactics suck.

Looking back now, I realize I could have really hurt him. I had one free hand and a clear shot to the face and throat.

Ending up on my back wasn't the best thing, but he totally surprised me. He was on me in a heartbeat, and I hate to say this, I actually laughed at first. I thought he was joking around. I said in a playful manner, "Oh X...get off me." It took me a few seconds to realize he wasn't responding to me ~ at all.

As soon as you feel your self in a situation that you don't care for you need to respond. You need to let the punishment fit the crime. If you punched him in the throat and ripped his eyes out when he was just playing around it would have been too great of a response. So at that point, maybe grabbing a hand full of skin or hair to get your point across would do. If that doesn't work, then get more aggressive and defend with whatever is available. If you know that they're not playing around, hurt them......BADLY! Hindsight is always 20/20, Don't dwell on the fact you didn't respond with that free hand. Learn from it, every learning experience helps you grow. I am sure that if you knew then, what you know now, the outcome would have been different. The man that came in to help you, would have had to pull YOU off of your attacker to save the attacker's life.

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If your in a "Fair Fight", your tactics suck.

Hello everyone. I am a Rape Escape instructor and a black belt. As a woman, I can say that I never felt safe in my ability to defend myself from a violent attack until I learned the Rape Escape method. I am on a county Sexaul Assault Response Team and 2 Domestic Violence Response Teams. Stats mean nothing when you are being raped. I know because I meet with rape victims in the local hospitals and I support them during the collection of evidence. Rape is rape. I teach women Rape Escape locally and I do not charge any money for the class. We teach women to use their strongest weapons against a man's weakest targets. It's a simple program that's easy to remember. Rape happens everywhere and being aware and preventive measures may help, but what do you do when those methods don't work and you have a man on top of you, who is 100 x's stonger than you, trying to rape you? If you're a man, you are not qualified to answer that question unless you've been raped. I say if it's a minimal charge for the rape escape class, take the class and judge it for yourself. Trust your intuition. It just may save your life.

I don't care what people do to defend themselves. If it works than go for it. I don't judge any programs or martial arts styles. I respect all martial arts and I respect anyone who is trying to teach women to protect themselves.

I feel that someone needs to teach a class that puts the "victim" on her back and must learn to fight and be effective from that position. Learning to strike on your back and release the pin is going to be the information needed. And going through the motions of it over and over and over again getting out of that postion will feel like second nature if it does unfortunately happen. I mean we learn to punch and knee over and over agian on our feet, why not learn from the ground? I also think that the stresses should be varied and the class shouldn't be in just one day. I think it should be involved every class time, repeatedly. I know the best defense is never to get taken down but if your blindsided by a 250 lb. violent man, learning on your feet isn't much of a help on your belly or back.

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One only regrets what he missed or cannot accept.

If your KM instructor does not teach groundfighting, you may want to check a BJJ school or maybe a MMA school to address those situations.

Striking while on your back is a difficult situation indeed, as you do not have full shoulder range of motion, nor any effective way to put weight behind your strikes. A good grappling program will teach you how to establish dominant positions that you can effectively strike from.

Check with your instructor and see what he can do for you.

_________________________"In case you ever wondered what it's like to be knocked out, it's like waking up from a nightmare only to discover it wasn't a dream." -Forrest Griffin

There is ground fighting in every level of Krav. It gets more involved with each level. I suspect you have not reached that point in your training yet. I agree that you should ask your instructor if you have concerns in this area.

_________________________"If you're gonna be stupid, you better be tough."